‘What...?’
He let go abruptly, and she yelped in panic, opening her mouth and swallowing a mouthful of seawater. Instantly, she scrambled for her feet, but the ground wasn’t there. She was sinking!
In another moment, she felt hands on her shoulders, pulling her back to the surface.
‘Don’t panic.’ Robert laid her flat on her stomach again. ‘Remember, nice smooth movements.’
‘I need a rest.’
‘Not until you’ve swum a few feet.’
He pushed her off again and she moved her arms and feet as he’d shown her, propelling herself through the water with ungainly, but apparently successful strokes. She was doing it! Not very well, perhaps, but she was swimming!
A wave swept towards her, and she thrashed her way through it, losing her rhythm again, but Robert was back at her side instantly, catching her as she started to flounder.
‘I did it!’ She flung her arms around his neck triumphantly.
‘I saw.’ He grinned, tugging her back towards the shallows. ‘Not bad for a beginner.’
‘I swam!’ She tossed her head back, laughing with glee. Her heart was still pounding with fear and excitement, but in a good way. She felt more intensely alive and vital than she had in a long time.
She could feel the pulse of another heartbeat, too. She gasped, coming back to her senses, belatedly realising where she was and what she was doing. The water was shallow enough for her to stand up in now, but her arms were still coiled around Robert’s neck, her chest still pressed against his, her face only inches away as the waves lapped softly around them. She was pressed up against her husband on a public beach—and she seemed incapable of moving away.
Instead, she held her breath, waiting for the moment to pass, but it only stretched out, every second deepening the tension between them. She looked into his eyes and felt her insides quiver. Every look he’d given her before seemed to pale in comparison to the one he was giving her now, his grey eyes blazing with an intensity she’d never seen there before.
‘You did well, Ianthe.’ His voice was even deeper than usual.
Another wave, higher and stronger than the rest, swept towards them, and she tightened her hold instinctively. He did so, too, pulling her closer as if afraid she might slip from his grasp, so close that she could feel every hard line and contour of his body. She heaved in a breath, all of her stomach muscles seeming to contract at once. There was no space between them now, not so much as a sliver of air. She could feel every bit of him, even the part pushing between her legs, a hot hard pressure that was obvious even through both their bathing suits.
‘Ianthe?’ His voice sounded ragged, as if he were asking some kind of question.
Somehow she forced herself to breathe. This—whatever this was—couldn’t happen. It wasn’t part of the agreement. It wasn’t the way she ought to behave...
He took hold of the mob cap and pulled it gently away from her head, fingers stroking her hair as he did so. She inhaled sharply, fighting the urge to pur
r. Some of her pins must have come loose because her bun started to unravel at once, falling in a ponytail down her back. Instinctively, she tipped her head up, arching her throat like the wanton she clearly was, but unable to control herself...
A shout from the beach made them both start in surprise.
‘Matthew!’ Robert recovered first, raising one hand to wave even as the other kept a tight hold of her waist below the water line.
She twisted her head towards the shore. The boy was running along the sand towards them, accompanied by two men carrying a picnic basket and someone else... She screwed up her eyes to make sure they weren’t deceiving her...a woman dressed entirely in pink, brandishing a large frilly parasol.
‘Aunt Sophoria!’
‘I thought it would be a nice surprise.’ Robert’s voice was a combination of frustration and apology.
‘It is.’ It was—everything except for the timing. She leaned away, trying to extract herself from his grasp before Aunt Sophoria saw them. ‘I should go and get dressed.’
His hold slackened at last and she waded back towards the hut, trying to escape before any of the new arrivals came close enough to see her flaming cheeks. Once inside, she tore off her wet things, standing naked and dripping in a futile attempt to cool down. Her body seemed to have gone from one extreme of temperature to another. What was wrong with her? All her hard-won self-control seemed to vanish whenever Robert touched her. If Matthew and her aunt hadn’t come along... She took a deep breath. She didn’t know what would have happened, but it was probably best not to think about it.
She dressed and fixed her hair quickly, hurrying outside to find her husband and aunt sprawled in a pair of deckchairs.
‘Ianthe, my dear!’ Aunt Sophoria tossed her parasol to one side. ‘Come and hug an old woman!’
‘Aunt Sophoria.’ Ianthe bent down to embrace her. ‘It’s lovely to see you again. I’d no idea you were coming to stay.’
‘Just for tonight, dear. Your husband tried to persuade me to stay longer, but you know I like to be amongst my own things. And it’s not as if Pickering’s very far away. We can visit each other as often as we like.’